Lily Rabe, Jessica Hecht & More to Tackle Classics at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Broadway favorites Lily Rabe and Jessica Hecht and director David Cromer are among the many big names who have signed on for Williamstown Theatre Festival’s 2011 summer season. The 173-seat Nikos Stage will play host to revivals of stage classics as well as three new works under the leadership of the festival's new artistic director, Jenny Gersten. The season runs June 22-August 21.
The Nikos season will launch on June 22 with Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, starring Tony nominee Hecht as Blanche DuBois and Sam Rockwell as Stanley Kowalski, directed by David Cromer. Additional casting for the show, which will run through July 3, will be announced shortly.
Next up will be comedian and playwright Lewis Black’s One Slight Hitch. Joe Grifasi directs this wedding day farce, which stars Paige Howard and Mark Linn-Baker, running July 6-17.
Merchant of Venice leading lady Lily Rabe will reunite with her Shakespeare in the Park co-star Hamish Linklater when she plays Nora to his Torvald in the Ibsen classic A Doll’s House. Oscar Isaac, Matthew Maher and Lili Taylor also star and Sam Gold directs the play, which will run July 20-31.
Bess Wohl’s Touch(ed) will receive its East Coast premiere at the festival on August 3 and run through August 14, directed by Trip Cullman. This lively, bittersweet comedy explores the scope, limits, and sometimes dangerous side effects of familial love. No casting has yet been announced.
Rounding out the season will be You Better Sit Down: tales from my parents’ divorce, which will run for one week only from August 16-21. Anne Kauffman will direct the piece, crafted by New York based theater company The Civilians from interviews between the cast and their own parents.
These shows join the previously announced Main Stage productions, which include the Broadway-bound revival of You Can’t Take It With You, the Restoration comedy She Stoops to Conquer, and the American premiere of John Doyle’s new musical Ten Cents a Dance.
